felis: (House renfair)
felis ([personal profile] felis) wrote in [personal profile] cahn 2021-03-06 07:29 pm (UTC)

Re: Dantal: Dog Name, Reading, and other Details (1784-86)

Dantal sounds lovely.

Doesn't he? He clearly has a lot of reverence for Fritz and seems to have liked him quite a bit, but it isn't OTT and he very methodically and quietly reports the things he himself witnessed - no speculation, no trying for a bigger picture. He says he wrote his account in the hope that it might one day contribute to a full and true character study of this "homme unique" - and I went and checked the French original here, because OF COURSE the German translator turned that phrase into "des Einzigen Königs". Which made me suspicious because it doesn't fit Dantal's tone IMO, and hey, I was right. (I went back to the French version quite a bit for this one, particularly for the quotes, because the translation is a bit imprecise at times. Even the dog quote wasn't exact!)

Clearly, he hadn't talked with Quintus Icilius about how the later got his name.

Heh.

Speaking of, though, he really wasn't connected to Fritz' circle at all it seems, just a local French teacher who apparently got recommended through Merian (the director of the Academy's Literature Class), who himself relied on a rec from Jean Pierre Erman, who was a member of the same church as Dantal.

re: Candide - see my reply to Mildred.

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